[Tripokaridos]

Thanks for the reply. Im going to have to hunt for some Beyers. They’re not super available where I am but can be found with a bit of a trek. Seems like the not-so-expensive Beyers can be quite good with a bit of pad rolling.

Every beyer that i had was treble happy . My wife love them. Personally i find them so exciting for long listening.
What i did are using some foam from AkG and beyer in front of them and it seems to make them darker more polite. The foam from hd6 line is so open air penetrated that doesnt effect sound like the original foam from Beyerdynamic.
I dont know how the new ones sound.

 

[kman1211]

Every beyer that i had was treble happy . My wife love them. Personally i find them so exciting for long listening.
What i did are using some foam from AkG and beyer in front of them and it seems to make them darker more polite. The foam from hd6 line is so open air penetrated that doesnt effect sound like the original foam from Beyerdynamic.
I dont know how the new ones sound.

Haven’t heard the new midtier Beyers but it seems they toned down the treble but not sure about other aspects of their sound. New Beyer flagships are warm, dark, and non-fatiguing. The new T5 is the least fatiguing headphone I’ve ever heard. The new T1 is warmth incarnate.

 

[Tripokaridos]

Haven’t heard the new midtier Beyers but it seems they toned down the treble but not sure about other aspects of their sound. New Beyer flagships are warm, dark, and non-fatiguing. The new T5 is the least fatiguing headphone I’ve ever heard. The new T1 is warmth incarnate.

I have seen that also use different foam over the driver. Compare to my old 770 990 1990

 

[fordski]

Sure!! Here you go!!

Sennheisers:






Sundaras:






Connectors:


All my connectors are 1 foot long so the total length of the cable is 5.5'. As you can see Hart Audio cables end in a 4 pin female mini XLR connector and all the connectors at one end are a 4 pin male mini XLR connector and in the other end the connector of your choice (Balanced or SE)







They are super soft and not bulky:


I also ordered 1 x 2.5mm balanced and 1 x 3.5mm SE connectors for OTG that are coming with the DCA AEON 2 Noire cable.

I see you are using the A30 pro with the Matrix Mini-i Pro 3. I just got a Matrix mini and am looking at the Sennheiser headphones and the A30 Pro. Did you find much difference with the 660s from the Matrix vs. the A30 pro? I also have some HifiMan edition XS headphones and think the added power of the A30 Pro with help with them. BTW nice setup!

 

[equalspeace]

So i decided on a whim to purchase a pair of 660s direct from Senn a couple weeks back. Not sure what it is but something clicked for me. Maybe the latest production runs being made in Ireland is factoring in but this pair i have here sounds so right. This is my 4th pair if y'all can believe that and i've never heard them sound like this. Seemd somehow Senn finally got some of the 6 series magic in the 660s.

I'm hearing a naturalness in the timbre, an effortlessness that i always missed in previous pairs. Could be me finally "getting it" when it comes to the 660s, but my ears are pretty good haha. I know how that sounds but I swear i hear differences between these and other pairs I've owned. Music from 660s sounds live now, very 600 like but with the characteristics this iteration of 6 series is bringing to table; the increased separation and slightly better bass tonality. They're layering instruments so nicely. Maybe it's my sources. They have changed in recent months. I use them a lot with the Shanling M3x and w my Tradutto in the mix now so perhaps that's impacting the 660s... Or maybe also Senn has the 660s dialed now. I'm not sure.. All I can report is what I'm hearing, and it's damned great.

I'll add i also picked up a pair of made in Ireland 600s and those sound the exact same as my Romania made pair. So there's that. It's all a mystery haha

 

[Blackfyre]

So i decided on a whim to purchase a pair of 660s direct from Senn a couple weeks back. Not sure what it is but something clicked for me. Maybe the latest production runs being made in Ireland is factoring in but this pair i have here sounds so right. This is my 4th pair if y'all can believe that and i've never heard them sound like this. Seemd somehow Senn finally got some of the 6 series magic in the 660s.

I'm hearing a naturalness in the timbre, an effortlessness that i always missed in previous pairs. Could be me finally "getting it" when it comes to the 660s, but my ears are pretty good haha. I know how that sounds but I swear i hear differences between these and other pairs I've owned. Music from 660s sounds live now, very 600 like but with the characteristics this iteration of 6 series is bringing to table; the increased separation and slightly better bass tonality. They're layering instruments so nicely. Maybe it's my sources. They have changed in recent months. I use them a lot with the Shanling M3x and w my Tradutto in the mix now so perhaps that's impacting the 660s... Or maybe also Senn has the 660s dialed now. I'm not sure.. All I can report is what I'm hearing, and it's damned great.

I'll add i also picked up a pair of made in Ireland 600s and those sound the exact same as my Romania made pair. So there's that. It's all a mystery haha

I own one from the first batches when they were released, so I've always had the Made in Ireland ones and loved them.

Are there any actual measurable differences between when they switched factories? Did people check? I keep reading or hearing from people that when they switched away from Ireland, they lost something, but not sure I've seen measurements to confirm the suspicions.

 

[SchwizzelKick66]

So i decided on a whim to purchase a pair of 660s direct from Senn a couple weeks back. Not sure what it is but something clicked for me. Maybe the latest production runs being made in Ireland is factoring in but this pair i have here sounds so right. This is my 4th pair if y'all can believe that and i've never heard them sound like this. Seemd somehow Senn finally got some of the 6 series magic in the 660s.

I'm hearing a naturalness in the timbre, an effortlessness that i always missed in previous pairs. Could be me finally "getting it" when it comes to the 660s, but my ears are pretty good haha. I know how that sounds but I swear i hear differences between these and other pairs I've owned. Music from 660s sounds live now, very 600 like but with the characteristics this iteration of 6 series is bringing to table; the increased separation and slightly better bass tonality. They're layering instruments so nicely. Maybe it's my sources. They have changed in recent months. I use them a lot with the Shanling M3x and w my Tradutto in the mix now so perhaps that's impacting the 660s... Or maybe also Senn has the 660s dialed now. I'm not sure.. All I can report is what I'm hearing, and it's damned great.

I'll add i also picked up a pair of made in Ireland 600s and those sound the exact same as my Romania made pair. So there's that. It's all a mystery haha

Preferences change maybe? Not sure, but I've loved my 660s since the day I got them last year. To me they are a clear improvement over the 650. Always scratched my head at people saying negative stuff about them.

Glad you're enjoying them!

 

[equalspeace]

I own one from the first batches when they were released, so I've always had the Made in Ireland ones and loved them.

Are there any actual measurable differences between when they switched factories? Did people check? I keep reading or hearing from people that when they switched away from Ireland, they lost something, but not sure I've seen measurements to confirm the suspicions.

I have no idea about measurements showing differences. Just reporting what my ears are hearing and comparing from memory.

Preferences change maybe? Not sure, but I've loved my 660s since the day I got them last year. To me they are a clear improvement over the 650. Always scratched my head at people saying negative stuff about them.

Glad you're enjoying them!

Perhaps my preferences have changed. I'm open to that explanation. Certainly feel like it could be all in my head haha

 

[SHAMuuu]

So i decided on a whim to purchase a pair of 660s direct from Senn a couple weeks back. Not sure what it is but something clicked for me. Maybe the latest production runs being made in Ireland is factoring in but this pair i have here sounds so right. This is my 4th pair if y'all can believe that and i've never heard them sound like this. Seemd somehow Senn finally got some of the 6 series magic in the 660s.

I'm hearing a naturalness in the timbre, an effortlessness that i always missed in previous pairs. Could be me finally "getting it" when it comes to the 660s, but my ears are pretty good haha. I know how that sounds but I swear i hear differences between these and other pairs I've owned. Music from 660s sounds live now, very 600 like but with the characteristics this iteration of 6 series is bringing to table; the increased separation and slightly better bass tonality. They're layering instruments so nicely. Maybe it's my sources. They have changed in recent months. I use them a lot with the Shanling M3x and w my Tradutto in the mix now so perhaps that's impacting the 660s... Or maybe also Senn has the 660s dialed now. I'm not sure.. All I can report is what I'm hearing, and it's damned great.

I'll add i also picked up a pair of made in Ireland 600s and those sound the exact same as my Romania made pair. So there's that. It's all a mystery haha

I don't think your views are that bizarre. I can say that if the flatplate is the king of the foodchain, the 660s edges that out FWIW. Which to me is a big deal, since flatplate is much rarer by the day, so that should be some food for thought. In terms of like it's nice to have an option which is basically like the original grandpa 580, but just faster, snappier, with less fatigue and a wee bit warmer. The key factor, being, it's more of a all in one for most music.

 

[oldlurker]

This is my first post here.

First thank you to everybody for all the posts about your impressions of the HD660s. I needed a headphone and came to lurk on these pages for an opinion and I found very valuable guidance for my purchase.

About a month ago I finally ordered an HD660s from B and H and it arrived yesterday. It took so long due to my living in a remote country.
Why the 660? Because it has a slightly higher sensitivity than the other 600 series. It comes with a balanced cable, so I thought that I can use it directly with my DAP without additional gear.

The headphones are used with a Sony NW WM1A and its balanced output. Since I have never owned any headphone, but some very fancy setup with high-end loudspeakers and tube electronics in older times I was quite impatient to hear how these headphones would sound. For clarification, I listen mainly to classical music.

Here is my opinion after listening a few hours to them with FLAC files either 44.1/16 96/24 or 192/24.

My first impression out of the box was that the sound was extremely bloated in the lower frequencies, obscuring details in the mids. It produces a very unpleasant, chaotic and inaccurate sound when listening to symphonic music with a high dynamic range. It seems like the headphone is limited in its dynamics.
The mids and highs are reasonably clean and detailed (when they are not overwhelmed by the lower frequencies). Not extremely detailed but OK.

The bass bloating is so overwhelming that I had to throttle down that area with the built-in equalizer. But even then, something does not sound right. Bass drums sound awful and inaccurate. Some loud symphonic passages with a lot of low frequencies sound just chaotic rumbling. It’s not music anymore.

There is also a very nasty distortion in the higher mid range when it gets louder. Very bad sound. Maybe it is coming from the configuration of my ears, or the DAP. I don’t know. It’s odd.

The sound sorely lacks space and air for classical music. Everything is in my face.

Generally speaking it is not a bad product. I hear glimpses of very clear and transparent music. For chamber music with limited dynamics it’s quite fine. Actually very nice and engaging. For larger orchestras it is a non starter, at least not for this combination.

Acoustic music with few instruments, Jazz, Blues, etc sounds great. The detailing is very good and accurate although I have a little issue with the timbre of the instruments. They don’t sound exactly the way they should.

They are also quite unforgiving. A bad recording sounds very bad, but I suppose that this is the case with all better headphones.

Now that said, maybe my ears don’t like to be fed with sound so close. I don’t really know.
Maybe it is the WM1A showing it’s limits. Very possibly. I have read that the power supplied by the balanced output is rather low. The volume is at 80-85 over max 120.

I also read in some posts that these headphones need some “burn-in” and they get better after 20 hours or so.

After a couple of dozen hours of listening I might post more if my impressions change.

Again, thanks to all of you.

JB

 

[alexeyi]

This is my first post here.

First thank you to everybody for all the posts about your impressions of the HD660s. I needed a headphone and came to lurk on these pages for an opinion and I found very valuable guidance for my purchase.

About a month ago I finally ordered an HD660s from B and H and it arrived yesterday. It took so long due to my living in a remote country.
Why the 660? Because it has a slightly higher sensitivity than the other 600 series. It comes with a balanced cable, so I thought that I can use it directly with my DAP without additional gear.

The headphones are used with a Sony NW WM1A and its balanced output. Since I have never owned any headphone, but some very fancy setup with high-end loudspeakers and tube electronics in older times I was quite impatient to hear how these headphones would sound. For clarification, I listen mainly to classical music.

Here is my opinion after listening a few hours to them with FLAC files either 44.1/16 96/24 or 192/24.

My first impression out of the box was that the sound was extremely bloated in the lower frequencies, obscuring details in the mids. It produces a very unpleasant, chaotic and inaccurate sound when listening to symphonic music with a high dynamic range. It seems like the headphone is limited in its dynamics.
The mids and highs are reasonably clean and detailed (when they are not overwhelmed by the lower frequencies). Not extremely detailed but OK.

The bass bloating is so overwhelming that I had to throttle down that area with the built-in equalizer. But even then, something does not sound right. Bass drums sound awful and inaccurate. Some loud symphonic passages with a lot of low frequencies sound just chaotic rumbling. It’s not music anymore.

There is also a very nasty distortion in the higher mid range when it gets louder. Very bad sound. Maybe it is coming from the configuration of my ears, or the DAP. I don’t know. It’s odd.

The sound sorely lacks space and air for classical music. Everything is in my face.

Generally speaking it is not a bad product. I hear glimpses of very clear and transparent music. For chamber music with limited dynamics it’s quite fine. Actually very nice and engaging. For larger orchestras it is a non starter, at least not for this combination.

Acoustic music with few instruments, Jazz, Blues, etc sounds great. The detailing is very good and accurate although I have a little issue with the timbre of the instruments. They don’t sound exactly the way they should.

They are also quite unforgiving. A bad recording sounds very bad, but I suppose that this is the case with all better headphones.

Now that said, maybe my ears don’t like to be fed with sound so close. I don’t really know.
Maybe it is the WM1A showing it’s limits. Very possibly. I have read that the power supplied by the balanced output is rather low. The volume is at 80-85 over max 120.

I also read in some posts that these headphones need some “burn-in” and they get better after 20 hours or so.

After a couple of dozen hours of listening I might post more if my impressions change.

Again, thanks to all of you.

JB

HD660s scales to some extent with the amplifier. They might not be the best for symphonic or orchestral recordings where lots of things are going on at the same time. For this genre I listen mostly with my HD800S or Arya, as these offer more space for the instruments to fill the stage. The later are in the end game of the headphones, so the prices are higher and they also need good amplification to give their best, but also the instruments separation and the quality of the low-end might be what you are looking for.

 

[Blackfyre]

My first impression out of the box was that the sound was extremely bloated in the lower frequencies, obscuring details in the mids. It produces a very unpleasant, chaotic and inaccurate sound when listening to symphonic music with a high dynamic range. It seems like the headphone is limited in its dynamics.
The mids and highs are reasonably clean and detailed (when they are not overwhelmed by the lower frequencies). Not extremely detailed but OK.

IMO, return it.

1. It might be a fake if you didn't buy it from an authorised seller.
2. You just don't like the sound and that's completely fine.

If your first impression is that "I do not like this", return it if you can. Don't try to fix it, or get your ears tuned to it.

First impressions are very important, and there are likely better suited headphones for you out there. We all like different things and that's completely fine.

 

[kman1211]

This is my first post here.

First thank you to everybody for all the posts about your impressions of the HD660s. I needed a headphone and came to lurk on these pages for an opinion and I found very valuable guidance for my purchase.

About a month ago I finally ordered an HD660s from B and H and it arrived yesterday. It took so long due to my living in a remote country.
Why the 660? Because it has a slightly higher sensitivity than the other 600 series. It comes with a balanced cable, so I thought that I can use it directly with my DAP without additional gear.

The headphones are used with a Sony NW WM1A and its balanced output. Since I have never owned any headphone, but some very fancy setup with high-end loudspeakers and tube electronics in older times I was quite impatient to hear how these headphones would sound. For clarification, I listen mainly to classical music.

Here is my opinion after listening a few hours to them with FLAC files either 44.1/16 96/24 or 192/24.

My first impression out of the box was that the sound was extremely bloated in the lower frequencies, obscuring details in the mids. It produces a very unpleasant, chaotic and inaccurate sound when listening to symphonic music with a high dynamic range. It seems like the headphone is limited in its dynamics.
The mids and highs are reasonably clean and detailed (when they are not overwhelmed by the lower frequencies). Not extremely detailed but OK.

The bass bloating is so overwhelming that I had to throttle down that area with the built-in equalizer. But even then, something does not sound right. Bass drums sound awful and inaccurate. Some loud symphonic passages with a lot of low frequencies sound just chaotic rumbling. It’s not music anymore.

There is also a very nasty distortion in the higher mid range when it gets louder. Very bad sound. Maybe it is coming from the configuration of my ears, or the DAP. I don’t know. It’s odd.

The sound sorely lacks space and air for classical music. Everything is in my face.

Generally speaking it is not a bad product. I hear glimpses of very clear and transparent music. For chamber music with limited dynamics it’s quite fine. Actually very nice and engaging. For larger orchestras it is a non starter, at least not for this combination.

Acoustic music with few instruments, Jazz, Blues, etc sounds great. The detailing is very good and accurate although I have a little issue with the timbre of the instruments. They don’t sound exactly the way they should.

They are also quite unforgiving. A bad recording sounds very bad, but I suppose that this is the case with all better headphones.

Now that said, maybe my ears don’t like to be fed with sound so close. I don’t really know.
Maybe it is the WM1A showing it’s limits. Very possibly. I have read that the power supplied by the balanced output is rather low. The volume is at 80-85 over max 120.

I also read in some posts that these headphones need some “burn-in” and they get better after 20 hours or so.

After a couple of dozen hours of listening I might post more if my impressions change.

Again, thanks to all of you.

JB

While better systems help this, the HD 660 S does have problems with dynamic range especially in the bass frequencies imho; this was something I noticed compared to some other headphones I’ve owned.

It could be somewhat underpowered too or simply bad synergy considering the weird upper midrange distortion you’re getting in the upper mids. But the HD 6xx series upper midrange has never been my friend at louder volumes so it may be similar for you. The HD 6xx series shines in chamber music and vocals imho. I’m thinking it’s simply a headphone that doesn’t suit your personal needs and tastes.

 

[SHAMuuu]

The new pads seem taller, and take longer to mould a bit. But once they do, they sound like pretty much like a 580/600 at least equal.

All the 580/600/ line have horrendous bass let's not kid ourselves its a 38mm PET jank

But the rolls offs , we've forgiven, and praised for like 25 years.

Another factor is the old headband which is wider . So when you factor in clamp, and the taller pad, that's a huge difference.

Unless wide variances in driver quality, or QC problems, I don't see major timbre problems once the clamp settles, and the pads settle a bit.

The 660 is much more genre friendly, all rounder, albeit not the best all rounder. Whereas the other "classics" is more genre specific, and very few genres. Like jazz basically

Now some people will say silk>paper baffle, and some will say blk paper > silk whether blk or white or silver, but this is just b/c of the mythical "Made in Germany" version which had the black paper and the early Ireland versions .

Argument being, well these were same engineers that tuned the "Orpheus", same with the 540 Gold, 250 Linear 600ohm, basically all the "Made in Germany" ones

But, these were tuned by the same engineers as HE-1, so.....

As early flatplates especially blk paper are a PITA to find, it's refreshing to have an option which is new and IMO equal in sound (which is not endgame)

And, yes I do wish it was 300 ohm b/c more ohm the better but oh well Hell I wish it was 2000 ohm!

Legendary, but this is also the headphone that made Tyll nearly cry.

IMO and YMMV

 

[cummje]

I felt similar when I got this a few months ago. I felt like they were muffled, which I think is a comment a number of people have written along this thread. I don’t know how long I listened to them that way, maybe 10 or 15 hours, but was quite unhappy with them compared to the Deva Pros that I had (I preferred them wired). I decided to try listening to them with the Oratory presets, and listened to them that way for probably 15 or 20 hours. But that to me sounded a little bit off, so I stopped using oratory and went back to just listening to them without EQ (running on a Zen stack which they work well with except the Zen Can has too much power…at least at my preferred listening level.)

I find them exceptionally clear now, and work with pretty much all of the music I listen to, which is everything from soundtracks for movies, hard rock and heavy metal, jazz and orchestral. I don’t think I have a critical enough ear to listen for congestion and things like that, at least I don’t really notice it, but I find them to respond quite well to all these genres. They sound exceptionally well with jazz like Go Go Penguin. Listening to them through my Qudelix via USB to my iPad pretty much made my jaw drop.

I’d say I’m in the burn in for 40 or 50 hours camp. Maybe try Eq’ing them and then come back to them without EQ. My guess is Dac/amp synergy is going to play big time too.